Letter: A modest proposal for Mercy and Centegra in Woodstock

Oct. 15, 2017

To the Editor:

If you look at Centegra Health losing money and no longer admitting most patients to their Woodstock. On the other hand Mercy Health wishing to build a new hospital so they must have the money to do so.

There's Mercy Health with an Immediate Care Center in Woodstock which also has many doctor's offices right down the street from the Centegra Hospital.

So what would be so incredibly out of the question for both companies to pay for independent appraisals of their respective facilities and make a trade? Obviously the hospital would be valued higher, but if Mercy has the money to build a new hospital they could afford to trade the immediate care facility and pay the difference to Centegra which would then have offices for doctors, an immediate care facility, no admitting beds and a pile of cash.

Some signs would have to be changed, new business cards and stationary, patients would get cared for if at a different address, Woodstock doesn't lose a hospital or immediate care facility. Is there a huge downside in there?